Sekou Andrews defies every preconceived notion you might have in your head about the voice and role of poetry in business, society and life.In his words, when he "tells people that, before creating a new inspirational speaker category, he was a successful 'full-time poet,' you would think that he had said 'full-time mermaid,' or 'freelance unicorn' based on the reactions he gets."A former elementary school teacher turned musician, national poetry slam champion, Sekou discovered the power of delivering larger ideas, stories, missions and even strategies to audiences not by traditional keynote or slides or visuals, but by meticulously crafted spoken word performances.He calls this "Poetic Voice" and Sekou has now presented to everyone from the world's largest organizations to Barack Obama, Oprah, Maya Angelou, Quincy Jones, Larry King, Hillary Clinton, Norman Lear, Sean “P-Diddy” Combs, and Coretta Scott King and family and so many others.In today's episode, we explore Sekou's remarkable journey, his exploration of acting, music, teaching and poetry, how he unbridled words from beat to make the leap from musician to poet and how he literally created an entirely new speaking category and is now turning around and teaching others how to discover their own Poetic Voices.Watch Jonathan's new TEDxBoulder Talk on YouTube now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zUAM-euiVI Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.